WHAT KREUGER SPENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1933, Page 4

WHAT KREUGER SPENT

£2-1,000,000 IN FOURTEEN YEARS - 1 Ivar Kreuger, the. Swedish “Match • King,” who committed suicide last . year, personally spent -132,000,000 > kroner (about £24.000.000 at par) dur- • Ing < lie period of more than fourteen r years covered by his frauds. 'Phis disclosure is made in the final t report of Messrs Price, Waterhouse, ; and Co., the London auditors, on the affairs of the Kreuger and Toll Com--5 pany. The report states that falsifications ; began in 1917, and covered over t’our- > teen years. During this period the balJ ance-sheets showed income over-stated by more than 1,000,000.000 kroner ’ (about £55,500,000), represented by > fictitious credits. Fraudulent manipulations, the report ; says, assumed the largest proportions • in 1923-24, culminating in the fabri- , cation of the Italian bonds. Krcuger’s successful concealment of the frauds lis ascribed to: The unbounded confidence felt in the man himself. General acceptance of his claim that secrecy was essential to the success of his operations. The autocratic powers conferred on liim, and The loyalty or unquestioning obedience of Kreuger’s officials. Altogether 160 companies in Europe and South and North America have been inquired into and there have been fifty-seven reports. The present one deals jointly with the principal companies of the Kreuger concern. For the fourteen and a-quartcr years from January 1, 1918, to March 31. 1932, it is calculated that about £159,700,000 was placed at the disposal of the companies. Of this £.116,800.000 was provided by the public and the balance by public loans, bills of credit, and net profits. In the same period the published incomes and profits of the companies mentioned exceeded real incomes by £57,100,000. “The frauds,” adds the report, “could not have been carried on without assistants. Bad auditing bad, of course, also played a large role in this matter.”